The Predicament
by Azraelya
Summary: Usagi wakes up in a strange room, along with two other males... The predicament? They're all tied up and blindfolded...


Well. I've done it again. Came back to FF .Net and rather than finally finishing a fanfic, what do I do? That's right, I start a completely new one. .:sighs with exasperation:. Anyway.. just a brief idea I had.. Not sure what direction this story will go in or if I'll even continue, but I figured I'd post it for fun ;) Enjoy!

**The Predicament**

Usagi yawned slightly, stretching her arms to clear away the traces of tiredness. Quickly, she found this task to be impossible. "Wha...?" She opened her eyes, but found with dismay that darkness still ensconsced her vision. Her heartbeat thudded loudly in her ears, pulsing her fear in panicking waves. "Help!" she cried. "I'm blind! And paralyzed! Oh nooo," she wailed pitifully.

"Woah, Hiro, there's someone else here with us," spoke a voice in surprise.

Usagi froze. "W..who's there?" she whispered. "Where am I? What happened? Oh noo," she cried. Her shoulders heaving with her cries, she realized mercifully that she was not paralyzed. Blinking her eyes several times, she felt her eyelashes brush across the soft material of a cloth: She was blindfolded.

"We'd like to know the same thing," muttered the voice from before. "You're not paralyzed nor blind... you're blindfolded and tied up, along with us it seems."

Usagi's eyes widened slightly beneath the cloth. "You're tied up too?" she asked incredulously.

"And blindfolded," the male answered. "And from how close you sound, I'd go as far as saying we might even be tied together. Hiro?"

"Yes," spoke the voice of the other occupant of the room. His voice sounded slightly farther, but not by much.

"Okay...must stay calm," Usagi murmured softly to herself. She shifted her hands that were tied behind her, and tensed as she felt them brush against skin. "Who's that?"

"That'd be me," answered the first voice, hope slowly materializing in his voice. "Seems we're tied back to back in these chairs..." He reached his hands to grasp hers, feeling her hand dainty and trembling within his. He tried to grasp down to her wrist, but couldn't quite make it. "See if you can feel the rope around my wrists," he encouraged.

Usagi stretched her hands backward, wincing at the sharp angle. She was sitting in a chair, she came to realize, her hands tied uncomfortable around its back. It must have been the same for the other two, or at least the man she was tied with. "I can't," she whispered, retracting the slight bit to ease the uncomfortable pain.

He swore softly, a moment of silence ticking by. "What's your name?" he asked gently.

"Usagi Tsukino," she murmured, her heartbeat still erratic with fear.

"Bunny? Cute... Duo Maxwell," her fellow captive victim introduced. "The other guy here is Hiro Yui.. Hiro? I'm not sure where exactly in the room you are," he muttered.

"I'm relatively close to you two," he replied in a quiet tone, working at the ropes that bound his wrists tightly. He should be able to break free of these with ease, he cursed mentally. The ropes were incredibly thick, but painfully tight in their binding.

"Wait," Duo spoke abruptly, pieces of his memory returning. "This is a military base... Hiro and I came for..." he trailed off upon remembering Usagi's presence. His eyes narrowed slightly as he thought of this.

"Do you work for Oz?" the one named Hiro asked with a deceptive tone of quietness.

"Hiro," Duo said in slight exasperation. "If she did, do you really think she'd be tied up with us? I remember vaguely... We came to investigate any possible secret military plans that may be occurring, but we ran into some guy..." Duo strained to recall. "He had blond hair and the coldest blue eyes.."

"Jedeite," Usagi murmured, shaking her head. She had came because Luna informed her this was the possible new hidden base for Queen Beryl. It seems her fears were confirmed. But how had she gotten captured? That's right... Jedeite as well. He blasted her with energy and that was the last she recalled before waking up in this predicament. "We have to get out of here," Usagi said desperately, struggling in her rope-bindings, wishing hopelessly she could at least see.

"The ropes are thick, if you could reach the knot it would be easy to break free," Hiro said in a low voice, frustrated that he could not.

Usagi shifted her hands within the binding. "I can't reach my own wrists like this," she mourned, trying not to cry.

Duo frowned slightly, his wrists already sore from his attempts at freeing himself. Already feeling his anger toward the situation building, he breathed slowly to calm his terms, letting a rational tranquility settle over him. "Alright... listen babe, I need you to work with me here," he said gently.

Usagi stopped wriggling futily. "How?"

Duo rolled his lips slightly, hoping his thinking was correct. "Try again to reach my wrists." Usagi bit her lower lip gently, leaning against the hard back of the chair to try and make the reach. "I can't," she whispered again, tears prickling her vision at the pain of the jarred angle of her shoulders.

"I know it hurts," he said gently, "but we'll start off slow. Just try reaching my wrists," he said again. "You can do it."

She leaned back again, her warm hands brushing against his knuckles. He shivered slightly before attempting to lean back some as well to ease her process. Wincing, she stretched as far as she could, a tiny thread of hope lacing through her as her fingers came in contact with the rough material of the rope. "Got it!" she exclaimed breathlessly.

"Good, don't let go," Duo said quickly, allowing his heart not to get too overwhelmed with the frail hope. "See if you can feel where the rope knots." He leaned toward her as far as he could, wincing as his shoulder blades shifted painfully. She worked her fingers downward in a slow-paced crawl, running the soft tip against the rounded circumference of the rope. She slid her finger against a crease in the rope; she had come to the knot. "Got it," she repeated in a whisper.

"Good! You're doing great babe," he murmured, shifting back further. "Now, try to slide your finger into the knot..."

She was a slight step ahead, working her fingers desperately into the rough binding. Her slender, tiny hands certainly came in handy as she felt a painful squeezing sensation against her finger; she had managed to slip her finger through. She worked desperately at the small loop she had created, ignoring the sliding of her tears from the stirring pain of her shoulders and arms. Leaning out just a bit too far, she cried out and drew away, ragged breaths parting from her lips as she had no means of alleviating the pain.

"Damnit," Duo swore quietly, shifting his hands. She had done fairly well, but he pondered if it would be enough. "You did good babe," he said soothingly, finding it slightly amusing that he called her that despite the fact he had yet to see what she looked like. He folded the fingers of his right hand carefully, drawing his thumb to the middle and trying to make it as narrow as possible. At a ridiculously slow pace, he eased his hand through the loosened binding. He was free. "Got it," he said with barely masked relief.

"Yay!" Usagi cheered, blasphemously happy under the circumstances. Duo proceeded to remove his blindfold before undoing the bindings around his legs, kicking the rope away and stretching out his sore muscles. "Thanks babe, I owe ya..." he turned to look at the girl he had been captured with, his eyes widening slightly as he realized the truth to his affectionate nickname.

Long, blonde hair in a peculiar style, petite, slender body... He kept his devious thoughts at bay at seeing her tied-up form, rationality granting him the fact that he should probably reciprocate helping her. He walked in front of her first, however, kneeling in front of the girl and placing his hands against her temples over the blindfold. He tugged it upward and held it within his hand, watching as her eyes opened slowly. The deepest pools of blue stared down at him innocently as she took in his appearence as well with slight fascination. His hair was very long, tied back in a thick braid that hung down the length of his back. His eyes were very warm and held an air of kindness, but something darker swirled within their depths. "Hiya," he said softly.

"Hi," she mumbled, shifting uncomfortably in her chair. "Would you mind helping me out a little more?" she asked hesitantly. Duo smiled lightly, complying to her wishes. He worked the bindings around her legs before proceeding to remove the rope around her wrists. She stood quickly with blessed relief, stumbling clumsily as she did so. He caught her within his grasp, watching her wince as his fingers encircled her wrist. He drew away slightly, running his fingers lightly across the bruised flesh. "Gonna be okay?" he murmured, referring to the bruise. She nodded numbly. "I'll be fine.. Thank you Duo.. We have to figure out how to get out of here the rest of the way," she said softly.

"I'm sure we'll be able to figure out something," he replied gently.

"After you free me, Duo, I'm going to kill you for letting your hormonal ambition get the better of you with forgetting my presence."

Duo yelped slightly, turning to the similarly tied figure of Hiro. "Hi-man! Oh man... I'm so sorry," he muttered, going over to him quickly and working at the ropes. "Truly, I didn't forget about you.. was just making sure the damsel in distress was alright first... ya know..." he stopped his rambling as he freed Hiro the rest of the way, smiling sheepishly at the deadly glare he was met with. Hiro's eyes flickered to Usagi, cold and suspicious. "Why did you end up here?" he asked.

"I... I don't know," she murmured, averting her gaze. "I just remembered encountering the blond man and getting blasted and waking up like that."

"What were you doing here in the first place?" he redirected, growing more suspicious as she seemed to be avoiding the question.

Usagi smiled sheepishly, raising her hand to the back of her head as she rubbed nervously. "I uh, I was wandering around and I wanted to explore a little... stupid I know," she mumbled, trying to think of a more plausible excuse.

"Curiosity is a dangerous thing, bunny," Duo said gently, trying to downcast his own suspicions. "But you spoke truly earlier, we need to figure out how to get out of here the rest of the way."

Hiro approached the door, placing his hand upon the handle and twisting the knob.

"Oh give me a break Hiro, you _really_ expected it to be that easy?" Duo asked incredulously. His mouth gaped as the door clicked open.

Hiro stepped outside briefly, surveying the area with carefully trained eyes. "It's clear," he stated. "Let's go."

Duo cast a reassuring smile at Usagi, walking out after Hiro. Usagi followed nervously, fearing the danger that might soon follow.

x-x-x-x-x-

...I have no clue where any of that came from. I just thought it would be kinda interestinng to wake up with a tied-up Hiro and Duo o.o .:clears echii thoughts:. erm, anyway... I know there's prolly a lot of questions about what the heck jus' happened, and honestly I prolly couldn't answer them adequately as I'm not really sure .:blush:.

Review if you'd like ;) Not sure if I'm going to continue this... If I do, it'll either be a Usa/Hiro or a Usa/Duo, or a conflicting but well-devised triangle of the three.. dun dun dun! Dunno where to go from here, but I have some ideas... Lemme know whatcha think! hehe.


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